Refuge for a mountaineer

Gonzalo Iturriaga designed a wooden mountain hut in Chile, constructing through planes and angles a cover that in its folds allows the entrance and in its cuts the exterior views.

The project features a roof, a kitchen, a bathroom and one room. The necessary to start at dawn the route traced the day before. The proposal consists in constructing through planes and angles a cover that in its folds allows the entrance and in its cuts the exterior views. Composed of a central corp of services, the form is established from folds that correlatively determine its interior and exterior.

Gonzalo Iturriaga Arquitectos, Refuge for a mountaineer, San Esteban, Chile, 2016
Gonzalo Iturriaga Arquitectos, Refuge for a mountaineer, San Esteban, Chile, 2016
Gonzalo Iturriaga Arquitectos, Refuge for a mountaineer, San Esteban, Chile, 2016
Gonzalo Iturriaga Arquitectos, Refuge for a mountaineer, San Esteban, Chile, 2016
Gonzalo Iturriaga Arquitectos, Refuge for a mountaineer, San Esteban, Chile, 2016


At one end the main room and a secondary room for mountain implements. At the other end, a common enclosure where the mountain leads the view towards the outside. The shell composed of pine wood, metal elements and crystals are transformed to fulfill two functions, structural and volumetric. Using a ventilated facade on all sides and a system of piles, the shelter functions as a hermetic element suspended on the ground that from specific openings uses the rising current of the mountain to ventilate its interior. It is the point of arrival and departure to each course defined by the mountaineer, a monitoring and rest station that gives in a privileged place the opportunity to contemplate and visit. 

Gonzalo Iturriaga Arquitectos, Refuge for a mountaineer, San Esteban, Chile, 2016
Gonzalo Iturriaga Arquitectos, Refuge for a mountaineer, site plan
Gonzalo Iturriaga Arquitectos, Refuge for a mountaineer, plan
Gonzalo Iturriaga Arquitectos, Refuge for a mountaineer, section
Gonzalo Iturriaga Arquitectos, Refuge for a mountaineer, elevation


Refuge for a mountaineer, San Esteban, Chile
Program: mountain hut
Architect: Gonzalo Iturriaga – Gonzalo Iturriaga Arquitectos
Area: 60 sqm
Completion: 2016